Social : connected with society and the way it is organized (dictionary definition)
Engineer: to contrive or plan out usually with more or less subtle skill and craft
Engineered: Skilfully arrange for (something) to occur (dictionary definition)
As per a research paper I read recently (https://www.academia.edu/14939554/THE_LANGUAGE_OF_SOCIAL_ENGINEERING_FROM_PERSUASION_TO_DECEPTION)
the definition of Social Engineering goes like this:
"Social engineering is widely used by everybody in everyday live. It happens in any level of human life, it happens in government or small business marketing, or in daily activities. As a technique in communication, social engineering can be used in good or evil way.
Cambridge Dictionary defines social engineering as the artificial controlling or changing of the groups within society. In further and practical definition, social engineering is the act of manipulating or deceiving a person to take an action that may or may not be in the “target’s” best interest.This may include obtaining information, gaining access, or getting the target to take certain action. It is used in the way teachers interact with their students, in the way doctors communicate to the patient, lawyers convince the judge, or psychologists obtain information from their clients. It even used by man to their partner in love. In short, social engineering is a social and psychological phenomenon that involves human interaction from babies to politicians and everyone in between. As a technique in interpersonal interaction, social engineering is not just single and spontaneous action but it covers collection of the action which includes planing, frameworking, and executing the action. Many people bealive that social engineering is more than action but it is art in manipulating"
Space: an extent set apart or available (dictionary definition)
"Makes sense!", Right?
See how the meaning of three innocuous words alter our imagination so drastically when put together as " Socially engineered spaces"!
A socially engineered space is a space with either persuasion or deception as its goal...
Goal of whom?
Goal of designers!
Who are they, the designers?
They are us!
Any place of worship anywhere in the world is a socially engineered space.
So are other such spaces like Academy, Workplaces, Judiciary, Policing, Assemblies, Parliaments, Senates and Houses and so on.
Only the goals vary.
Now, in the Post Modern Era of Digital world we live in, Social Engineering is known as Phishing attacks, i.e. making gullible people part with sensitive data willingly / unwillingly!
All social media platforms, service platforms, entertainment platforms...they all do this!
If you are tricked quickly and at once that results in material loss, the perpetrators can be punished by law.
If you are tricked slowly and steadily over a long period that results in losses in multiple layers of your existence, all the other socially engineered structures reward the 'perpetrators' with all kinds of protections and incentives!
The root cause, of the malaise, is our addiction to 'free access, free everything'!
Think about this too:
Doctor: As per Miriam Webster, "Doctor comes from the Latin word for "teacher" and originally referred to a small group of theologians who had approval from the Church to speak on religious matters. Eventually the term saw greater use referring to qualified academic and medical professionals"
!
A term originally used to identify religious preachers, is now used to identify pharma preachers, mainly!
Let me make it little more interesting by moving from the meaning of Doctor as noun to doctor as verb:
To doctor something: To alter or modify for a specific end, mostly on a negative way! :-)
Unethical doctors, attracted to freebies of this or that kind, are also socially engineered 'mind' spaces right?!
Extend this list and you can easily fill it with lawyers, politicians, service providers, even You and Me!
In Tamil language there is a fantastic ancient poem (Pura Naanooru, Poem #192) that begins with these immortal lines,
" யாதும் ஊரே யாவரும் கேளிர்;
தீதும் நன்றும் பிறர் தர வாரா"
What these line meant, has eternal relevance...
"The whole earth is our abode and all that (the entire eco system) that coexist are our kith and kin.
Good and Bad are always self created; they never come from outside"
Profound, ain't it?!
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